Morning Agenda: Question Mark for Fed’s Top Spot

If Gary D. Cohn is no longer considered a serious contender to take over the Federal Reserve, as multiple news media outlets report, what’s next for him?

More important, will President Trump decide to keep Janet L. Yellen as leader of America’s central bank, or will he turn to someone like the former Fed governor Kevin Warsh?

Here’s what we know:

• Mr. Cohn’s public criticism of the president’s response to the violence in Charlottesville, Va. has made it much less likely that he will succeed Ms. Yellen at the Fed, according to The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.

• The New York Times says that Mr. Cohn has fallen out of favor, but is not totally out of the running. Still, Mr. Trump is known to place a premium on loyalty, and has complained about Mr. Cohn’s statements.

• Even after his criticism of the president, Mr. Cohn has said that he needs to stay on board to work on matters like an overhaul of the tax code. It’s possible that if the initiative succeeds, he could regain Mr. Trump’s favor.

Ms. Yellin’s tenure as chairwoman of the Fed expires in February. The White House could renominate her. Or it could pick from other candidates, including these mentioned by the news media:

But a potential strike against him is that he is also viewed as more of a “hawk,” in favor of raising rates more quickly to squash inflation. And Mr. Trump has been public in saying that keeping unemployment low is one of his biggest economic priorities, meaning that he would probably favor keeping rates low.

Another potential sticking point is that Mr. Warsh is close to Mr. Cohn.

As for the future of Mr. Cohn, his friends and associates have long speculated that if he were not nominated as the next Fed chairman, he would leave his White House post.

And a big question is how the markets will react to the latest bout of Fed speculation. Investors have panicked before when rumors arose that Mr. Cohn might resign.

“I think if he steps away, it would crash the markets,” Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a professor at Yale’s School of Management, told CNBC last month.

In other Fed news:

Mr. Trump will also need to fill four of seven Fed board seats after Stanley Fischer’s decision to resign for personal reasons.

The White House has already nominated Randal K. Quarles to become a Fed vice chairman.

And it has also settled on nominating Marvin Goodfriend, a professor of economics at Carnegie Mellon University, but that choice has not yet been made formal.

Peltz Makes His Case at Procter & Gamble

The activist investor Nelson Peltz has finally laid out his proposal for shaking up Procter & Gamble, and it calls for completely reorganizing the consumer products giant.

“Given that Trian is one of P.&G.’s largest shareholders, Nelson Peltz will be a motivated independent director with a laser focus on long-term sustainable shareholder value creation that can accelerate positive change — as he has done with many other consumer companies over the past 40 years.”

Procter & Gamble’s response:

“While the P.&G. Board and management team will review Trian’s ‘white paper’ in more detail, it remains clear Trian has an outdated view of our company. The fact is P.&G. is a profoundly different company than it was just a few years ago.”

Remember: P.&G.’s annual shareholder meeting is set for Oct. 10.

U.K. Tries to Stir Support for Brexit Talks

The biggest British companies have been asked to publicly back the government’s approach to leaving the European Union, prompting anger among executives who say they will not be “strong-armed” by ministers, Sky News and The Financial Times reported.

A letter drawn up by 10 Downing Street praised Prime Minister Theresa May for trying to secure a transition period after Britain leaves the bloc in March 2019 and expressed confidence in the future of “a global Britain.”

The response was not particularly enthusiastic.

One unidentified executive at a FTSE 100 company:

“There is no way we could sign this, given the current state of chaos surrounding the talks.”

Another executive:

“You’d have to be craven, or maneuvering for a knighthood.”

And an unidentified government minister:

“I have no idea who in Number 10 thought this was a good idea.”

Business owners were already furious over a leaked Home Office plan to restrict the migration of lower-skilled European Union workers after Britain leaves the block, which was reported by The Guardian.

The British Hospitality Association said the idea was potentially “catastrophic” and the National Farmers Union said it would cause “massive disruption to the entire food chain,” The Financial Times reported.

Fake Facebook Accounts Bought Political Ads

Facebook said that it had identified more than $100,000 worth of divisive ads on hot-button issues that had been purchased by a shadowy Russian company linked to the Kremlin, providing new evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 race for the White House.

The ads did not refer to particular candidates, but focused on divisive social issues such as race, gay rights, gun control and immigration. They ran between June 2015 and May 2017 and were created by a Russian company called the Internet Research Agency.

Alex Stamos, Facebook’s chief security officer, said it had shared its findings with American government investigations into Russian intervention in the election.

Facebook has been at the center of a storm over its role in propagating false news reports and other misleading information.

Related Reading:

• Facebook was also criticized for asserting that it could reach 25 million more young Americans than exist according to a United States census. The discrepancy is likely to be a setback with advertisers, coming as Facebook tries to make video ads a bigger part of its business. (Facebook says its numbers included nonresidents and are based on user’s self-reported ages.)

The Latest for China’s Conglomerates

• Goldman Sachs has suspended preliminary work on the initial public offering of a division of HNA, the Chinese conglomerate whose ownership structure has been under scrutiny, Reuters and The Financial Times reported.

The project to list the business unit, Pactera, had failed to meet the bank’s internal due-diligence requirements. Goldman was not formally hired for the stock sale, but it had been contacting investors for pre-I.P.O. fund-raising.

• Guo Wengui, a Chinese billionaire who has accused HNA of bribing high-ranking officials in China, has applied for political asylum in the United States.

HNA had vowed to sue the tycoon, who has publicized his accusations via Twitter and YouTube from his New York apartment. His lawyer said formal asylum would offer Mr. Guo more protection than he has under his tourist visa.

• The news about HNA comes after reports that it had considered buying a stake in the German insurer Allianz. But the company withdrew after the Chinese government’s clampdown on deal-making, as well as a cold reception from Allianz.

• China’s efforts to clamp down on international deal-making have reduced levels of outbound mergers and acquisitions 43 percent thus far this year, according to China Money Network.

Coming Up

• All eyes are on Mario Draghi today. The president of the European Central Bank was expected to announce a major policy shift, but the weaker dollar could prompt him to wait until at least October to announce any decision to wind down the bank’s stimulus efforts.